Latest News

A view from the bottom of the commodity chain reveals the comedy, and tragedy, of human exploits in nature

As I stumble from my bunk, I come eye to toe with a smelly, sock-coated foot. Shaking sleepily, I stagger out to conjure up grimy, cheap coffee, which I drink with tasteless cereal and a waxy apple. As the boat engine rumbles to life, I leap out on deck to coil anchoring lines. The fog is dense, and our brief commute to open water teems with life. The marina seals resemble neighborhood dogs, barking and flopping lazily atop rust crusted buoys. Sea otters can be spotted floating on their backs, rubbing their bellies. This serenity is shattered by a shout from the captain, and we jump into our uniforms, though to call it a “uniform” is generous. We wear orange foul-weather gear over loose sweats, and from a distance, we may well be mistaken for traffic cones with arms.

Photo by Marcel HolyoakA squid fishing boat in Monterey Bay, CA. On a good day, a squid boat can catch around one hundred tons of squid using purse seine nets.

If you’re still wondering to which curious circus I’ve come for employment, look no further than the Monterey Harbor, roughly 100 miles south from San Francisco. I’m on a commercial squid fishing boat, one of some 25 purse seiners stationed in the area. ‘Seiners’ are large vessels that use a small skiff clipped to the aft, which draws a net around schooling fish. Once the net surrounds a school, one heavy side sinks and another floats, forming a submersible wall. A thick line is pulled along the bottom to “purse up,” creating an inescapable bowl that holds squid and whichever hapless creatures swim too near.

As the hydraulic system winches the massive, dripping net onboard, crabs and sponges shower onto my head. For anyone who connotes jellyfish with ethereal beauty, I submit that squid fishing will quickly change your mind. Jellyfish are the new bane of my existence, and their blooms fill California’s coastal waters. Not a day goes by when I am not smacked in the face with a dripping, gelatinous wad. Jelly stingers permeate the surrounding water, so when this firewater runs down your shirtfront, your nerves resoundly kick you in the brain. Fortified as you may be against the water with thick waterproof clothing, the slightest opening in the jacket sends even the most stoic fisherman into a dark place, filled with obscenities and mutterings.

We five crewmen would work from early morning late into the night. On a boat time ceases to be conceived in hours. Occasionally, we would spend an entire afternoon untying an enraging two-ton knot in the net. On a good day, we would deliver around one hundred tons of squid to the dock, though such bounty came rarely. The average Pacific market squid weighs roughly 0.088 lbs, meaning a ton of squid meat would need about 22,727 squids. A veritable squid genocide.

When there is squid to be had, a pump is lowered into the net. The pump is a seven hundred pound metal object, which resembles the bottom portion of a space shuttle. The hydraulic winch lifts the pump in the air, and on turbulent, rolling waters, we crew scramble around to guide it into the net. On slippery decks, and hanging from a perilously thin-looking line, the pump swings with the boat’s motion. If it fell on you, this mammoth wrecking ball-like object could easily kill you. To picture this precarious dance, imagine four orange weasels guiding a bowling ball around in a slippery bumper car.

The squid are sucked up the pump, down a chute, and into a massive hold under the deck. This spectacle simultaneously vies for all the comedy and tragedy in human escapades in nature. Sliding down, squid blast ink in every direction, a sad attempt to defend against strange enemies. Repeatedly, I pause at these moments, and in sets a familiar sadness.

Surrounded by the beauty of the ocean, in the thick of a fishing boat’s dealings, it becomes clear how far most people have moved from the source of their food.

Cephalopods have large eyes, a characteristic often associated with high brain development, and yet no timescale of evolution could have prepared them for human ingenuity. Whatever their final desperate thoughts, one detects unmistakable fear and comprehension in their eyes. And they are so many individuals. Rays, octopi, small fish, and other ‘’bycatch’’ bespeckle the squid streaming down the chute, and we scramble to toss them back into the sea. These are the lucky ones, the few.

My Alaskan coworker comments cheerily as we work, “You can eat those, but not those. And those there are good with garlic and butter…”

Upon reaching the shore, a highly unglamorous task awaits in the hold — unloading our catch. The hold is an enormous, room-sized tank, directly under the center deck. Only after the dockworkers have vacuumed out roughly half the squid can one crawl inside. We don puffy, brown waterproof overalls and carry green, plastic shovels. People often dream of swimming in a pool filled with stuff such as beer or ice cream; I have crawled through the depths of the nightmarish opposite: cold, gelatinous squid. With the aid of a high-powered hose and our toy plastic shovels, we scrape, and shove the remaining squid into the vacuum tube. Most are already dead at this point.

I am an environmentalist to the core, and a recent vegetarian. Though I’d never have admitted it on the boat, I feel guilty about severing earthworms when digging. While I cannot deny the thrill of fishing and my love for the ocean, I often have a hard time explaining why I am here.

Largely, I wanted to understand this ancient profession in the modern age. Images from Melville and Cook formerly danced in my mind, but the romanticism I had sought is long gone. Sailors of yore would have been amazed by the modern amenities on board, including a flat-screen TV and microwave —,more city condo than proper ship. It was a disappointment that I’d never got to climb onto rigging, though I did climb the mast to change a light bulb. Nevertheless, I wanted to get closer to the bottom rung of our commodity chain, to understand what fishing really meant.

Six months on the boat changed me. Regardless of one’s initial sentiments, it is hard to continue this work without becoming desensitized. In three months, I went from resident bunny-hugger to hardened squid slayer. It was a particularly startling moment when I referred to the squid as money, a common phrase I’d noticed being used early on and resolved never to adopt.

Whatever opinion people may hold about them, these fishermen hold no illusions about their work: it pays the bills. Not many modern jobs even approach the grueling, demanding, and stressful nature of commercial fishing. Yet here, I witnessed perhaps the best work ethic I’ve ever encountered. Even after getting obliterated at the local dive on our one night off each week, we would all be back at work early in the morning.

Good or bad, for better or worse, in the thick of this grungy boat’s dealings, I saw how far most people have moved from the source of their food.

To consumers, squid will only ever be calamari, the same way cows are safely packaged in our minds as burger. After my time on the boat, I could never bring myself to eat squid, nor forget how many I’ve helped catch. If anyone has the opportunity to spend time on a fishing boat, I’d whole-heartedly recommend the experience. Perhaps then more of us would reassess our relationship with the sea life we call food.

Comments

After exploring a number of the articles on your website,
I truly appreciate your technique of blogging. I saved as a favorite it to my bookmark webpage list and will
be checking back soon. Please check out my web site too
and let me know your opinion.

By phen375 reviews on Sat, March 12, 2016 at 8:04 am

I simply could not go away your website prior to suggesting that I actually enjoyed the usual
info an individual supply in your visitors? Is going to be back frequently
in order to investigate cross-check new posts

By weight loss solution on Sat, March 12, 2016 at 6:51 am

This is a topic which is near to my heart… Cheers!
Exactly where are your contact details though?

By get-study.ru on Sat, March 12, 2016 at 5:42 am

Valuable info. Fortunate me I found your web site
unintentionally, and I am surprised why this accident did not took place in advance!

I bookmarked it.

By phen 375 diet on Sat, March 12, 2016 at 3:16 am

They’re as healthy as a bear.

By is Phenq safe on Fri, March 11, 2016 at 12:39 pm

I believe everything posted was very reasonable. But, consider this, suppose
you added a little content? I mean, I don’t want to tell you how to run your blog,
however suppose you added a headline that
grabbed folk’s attention? I mean Aboard a Squid Fishing Boat: Learning Tough Lessons About Our Food Sources | Latest News | Earth Island Journal
| Earth Island Institute is a little plain. You should peek at Yahoo’s front page
and note how they create post titles to get people interested.

You might try adding a video or a picture or two to get readers interested about everything’ve got
to say. In my opinion, it might make your website a little bit more interesting.

By the most effective diet pill on Fri, March 11, 2016 at 10:14 am

This is really an interesting article and as I’ve showed to a number of friends, sum of which are editors and non of which fish, they were all very intriqued by the writing style and experiences. The images cleverly described particularly ring clear to myself as I was aboard this rig and crewed alongside with the author of this article. As a third generation fisherman Im a person that describes the smell of fish gerry and rotting squid as “the smell of money” as even do the girls of our town here in the North. I remember the first day Jake was on board, we had angered another boat with our technique in which we set, there Captain screamed death threats across the sea if we came back to port that night. We became really good friends and went through some rough and tumble times together. Im so happy I stumbled on this as it brings back a fierce amount of memories and a perspective in which depths I’ve never seen of Jakes and probably many peoples if they had the same experiences.

By Dan Beehler on Fri, October 10, 2014 at 12:10 pm

I have no issue with raising a beef cow and even give it a name.
Then butcher it. If your really worried about a cow or a fish you shouldn’t eat it. Where exactly are we supposed to get our steaks and burgers from? I’m sure the heck not going to go without it. And how about pig. Yummiest thing I ever had is Bacon. How about carnitas? What about chicken nuggets?
I’m not doing with out any of it.

By Tangie Man on Tue, April 15, 2014 at 5:19 pm

Ooh, i can taste the stench of wet fish guts in your writing! And I am no longer sure I can continue to calamari without thinking about those tortured eyes you described. But fish don’t really have emotions, do they?